A college admission test criticized for emphasizing the Bible and conservative social ideas could factor into state merit scholarship awards under a bill that passed a Kentucky Senate committee last week.
Senate Majority Whip Mike Wilson (R-Bowling Green) sponsored Senate Bill 7, which led to questions from Democrats at the Senate Education Committee Thursday about the toughness of the exam, called the Class Learning Test.
The committee passed the bill unanimously.
According to the Classic Learning Test website, the exam — first used in 2015 — is “not religiously or politically affiliated” although it clarifies, “CLT Partner Colleges (which it tallies at around 250) tend to be private, liberal arts, or faith-based colleges which share our mission.”
An Inside Higher Ed story from September 2023 reported critics of the test “argue it places too heavy an emphasis on biblical passages and traditional Western thought, and that the authors represented are largely white men with questionable positions on race, LGBTQ+ rights and multiculturalism.”
Although he voted for the bill in committee, Senate Minority Floor Leader Gerald Neal (D-Louisville) said he wants more information on the research used to devise the admissions test before the bill comes to a vote on the Senate floor. The senator said Kentucky should ensure any test that factors into state merit scholarship award process is equally strenuous.
“We don’t want to dumb it down inadvertently,” Neal said.
So far, Florida is the only state to have sanctioned the use of the Maryland-based standardized Classic Learning Test at state undergraduate colleges and universities. Private, mostly faith-based colleges and universities – including five in Kentucky – are among the majority of the test’s “partners” that use it for undergraduate admissions, according to the test company’s website. Kentucky colleges cited as partners on the website include Thomas More University in Crestview Hills and Georgetown College. Yet, though some in-state colleges use it for admissions, the exam is not allowed to factor into state merit scholarship awards (aka Kentucky Educational Excellence scholarships or KEES) for Kentucky high school or homeschool students.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown) is a lead cosponsor of the legislation. Similar bills have been heard in past legislative sessions, including the 2023 General Assembly, when nearly identical legislation passed the full Senate 33-2 but stalled in the House. That bill was SB 24, which Sen. John Schickel (R-Union) sponsored.
Backers of SB 7 say adding the test to the merit scholarship process would specifically give Kentucky’s growing number of homeschooled graduates more access to the money. Students would be able to receive annual merit scholarships based on an “equivalent” grade point average based on how they score on the Classic Learning Test or traditional college tests like the ACT and SAT.
Currently, homeschool graduates or those with a general education development diploma (GED) earn annual merit scholarship awards based on their ACT scores only.
A fiscal note from the Legislative Research Commission attached to the bill said it is expected to cost the state $878,500 each fiscal year. That cost is based on a Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority estimate that the bill would increase the scholarship rolls by 500 students.
Rep. Steve Rawlings (R-Burlington) filed similar legislation to SB 7 earlier this month. That bill is House Bill 46, and has not yet been assigned to a committee for review.
Wilson – who is also sponsoring bills this session to create a partisan Kentucky Board of Education and pull back on diversity, equity and inclusion programs at colleges and universities – framed the Classic Learning Test as a new-generation college test. Wilson told the Senate Education Committee that he’s heard universities say they are not looking as much at ACT or SAT scores for admission but are instead relying on grade point average.
By allowing an equivalent grade point average based on test scores, Wilson said SB 7 would allow homeschool graduates “to have a comparable amount of KEES money.”
About the test’s reliability, Wilson said “The rigor is I believe very much there.”
SB 7 now returns to the full Senate for further action.
